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US, Iraqi forces fight street-to-street in Kerbala By Kieran Murray KERBALA, Iraq, April 5 (Reuters) - U.S. troops fought street-to-street with paramilitaries in the central Iraqi city of Kerbala on Saturday in a fierce assault aimed at protecting supply lines of U.S. forces moving into Baghdad. U.S. officers said the American troops had killed about 75 Fedayeen paramilitaries loyal to President Saddam Hussein and said six or seven U.S. soldiers had been wounded in the battle. Others had slight burns but continued to fight. The Iraqi fighters took up positions on rooftops in the narrow streets of this Shi'ite shrine...

IN SOUTH-CENTRAL IRAQ (AP) - American soldiers on the road to Baghdad fought bloody street-to-street battles with Iraqi forces loyal to Saddam Hussein while coalition aircraft bombed southeastern Iraq to open the way for a possible new front in the crucial battle for Baghdad. South of the capital, the U.S.-led coalition pounded Iraq's Republican Guard with bombs and missiles in an effort to soften up Saddam's most loyal forces assigned to defend Baghdad. On the ground, U.S. and British soldiers fought fierce battles small groups of Saddam loyalists. Around Karbala, 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Baghdad, U.S. Army troops...

Dozens of Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard soldiers have been captured during fierce street-to-street fighting south of Baghdad, according to US forces. At least 35 Iraqi troops were reported killed by US troops in Hindiyah, about 50 miles from the capital. An American officer died in the fighting and another was wounded in the leg when a bullet ricocheted through the open door of his armoured vehicle. Hindiyah is strategically important because it is a key Euphrates river crossing - a point emphasised by Saddam sending his best-trained and best-equipped troops to protect it. Tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles from...

HINDIYAH, Iraq (AP) - Trading fire with Iraqis hidden behind brick walls and hedges, U.S. Army forces spearheading the drive on Baghdad battled their way into this town 50 miles from the capital Monday and captured dozens of members of Saddam Hussein's vaunted Republican Guard. The street-to-street fighting at the key Euphrates River crossing was the war's closest known battle to Baghdad. Farther south, the Army encircled the Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf and said it killed about 100 paramilitary fighters and captured about 50 Iraqis. Soldiers said they saw pickup trucks with children interspersed among Saddam's Fedayeen fighters...